Upgrade your morning

June 9, 2017

Alarm goes off and you greet the morning by hitting snooze (twice). Your kid wakes you up by sneezing in your face, and you realize that in addition to having just probably contracted a cold, you are LATE. You scramble around, stubbing your toe, jumping in and out of the shower in 5 minutes, throwing clothes on, yelling at everyone in your family (including dog) at least once before pouring some coffee in a travel mug, grabbing a random granola bar, and piling everyone in the car so you can do drop-offs and get to work.

Is this you?

Take control back over your mornings! I can’t tell you how often I hear clients talk about about crappy mornings leading to crappy days. The way you start the day is important. The thoughts you start thinking from the moment you open your eyes set the day in motion, and it can be hard to shift the momentum later on.

Try these tips if your morning could use a major overhaul:

🔅 Wake up a little earlier than everyone else.

I know, I know. If you’re not a morning person, this is a big ask, especially if your work day already starts before 8:00am. But I’m telling you, even 10 minutes can make a difference. If you can swing 30-40 minutes, you’ll be able to do 2 or 3 meaningful things right at the start of your day.

⏰ Get up the first time your alarm goes off.

Hitting snooze puts you into a foggy sleep loop that makes it harder to get up when the time finally comes.

🥛Drink a big glass of water!

You’re body gets dehydrated overnight.

😌 Meditate.

There’s no way to do this wrong, although it’s good to get out of bed to do it so you can avoid falling back to sleep. Simply close your eyes, sit comfortably, breathe normally, and see what comes up for you. Let go of the urge to judge your thoughts or make them go away. If you’re new to meditating, you might try a mindfulness app and listen to a guided recording to give you some structure. Start with 5 minutes a day and see how it goes.

📖 Do something relaxing or fun.

Read a book for a few minutes. Listen to a short podcast. Freewrite. Feed your brain uplifting, inspiring, positive ideas and see how that cascades through the rest of your day.

🍒 Eat a whole food.

Banana with peanut butter, some nuts and berries, an egg and some veggies if you’re feeling fancy. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or a lot of food. Skip the packaged stuff. Oh, and HAVE COFFEE. Unless you’re one of those people who “doesn’t need it.”

🤠 Commit.

Stick with your new routine for at least two weeks and see if it reduces some of the anxiety, tension, irritability and stress that come with chaotic mornings.

We will for sure be talking about the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to routines as part of Battling Burnout. For more details >>stephaniedobbin.com/groups 💟